124 GAME BIRDS. 



of several plants, and insects, furnish them with food ; they never 

 become so familiar as the quail, but sufficiently so to breed in the 

 aviary. 



THE QUAIL 



Is about seven inches and a half in length; bill dusky; hides 

 hazel, in old male birds yellow ; the crown of the head is black, 

 transversely marked with Rufus-brown; down the middle is a 

 yellowish- white line; above the eye, passing backwards, is another 

 line of the same colour ; on the chin and throat is a black mark, 

 which turns upwards to the ears ; the rest of those parts are white ; 

 the hind parts of the neck, back, scapulars, and tail coverts, are 

 Rufus-brown, the middle of each feather streaked with yellowish- 

 white, surrounded, more or less, with black ; sides the same, but 

 have not so much of the white streaks ; breast, light ferruginous- 

 brown ; shafts, white ; belly, paler ; wing coverts, pale Rufus- 

 brown, streaked like the back, but more minutely ; quills, dusky, 

 the outer webs more or less mottled with yellowish-white ; tail, 

 dusky, tipped with white, and consists of twelve short feathers, 

 hid by the coverts. The female differs, in having no black chin 

 or throat, but only a dusky mark from the ears, passing down- 

 wards ; the breast is also spotted with dusky, and the coverts of 

 the wings crossed with yellowish- white bars, in other respects the 

 sexes are alike. The legs of both are of a light yellowish brown. 

 The quails known to us are universally diffused through Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa, but not in America ; they are birds of passage, 

 and are seen in immense flocks traversing the Mediterranean Sea, 

 from Europe to the shores of Africa, in the autumn, and returning 

 again in the spring, frequently alighting in their passage on many 

 of the islands of the Archipelago, which they almost cover with 

 their numbers. On the western coast of the kingdom of Naples, 

 such prodigious numbers have appeared, that an hundred thousand 

 have been taken in a day, within the space of four or five miles. 

 From these circumstances it appears highly probable that the 

 quails which supplied the Israelites with food, during their journey 

 through the wilderness, were sent thither on their passage to the 

 north, by a wind from the south-west, sweeping over Egypt and 

 Ethiopia, towards the shores of the Red Sea ; several remain and 

 breed with us, and are of a larger size than our migratory visitors. 

 Bechstein, the German author, says, " Besides the beauty of form 

 and plumage, the song of this bird is no slight recommendation to 

 the amateur. In the breeding season, that of the male commences 



